Julia M. Blocher

Dr. Julia M. Blocher is a Project Lead, leading the FutureLab's contributions to the project "HABITABLE: Linking Climate Change, Habitability and Social Tipping Points: Scenarios for Climate Migration" (EU Horizon 2020). This project is the largest research initiative ever to be funded by the European Commission on climate change and migration. The project combines qualitative and quantitative methods in six case study countries in Africa and Asia.

Prior to joining PIK, Dr. Blocher was a Project Manager at the United Nations University Centre for Policy Research in New York (UNU-CPR), a think tank within the UN system. At PIK, she previously contributed to the "East Africa, Peru, India Climate Capacities" (EPICC) and the "Governance of Climate Change and Human Mobility" projects. She is also a youth advocate, and serves as President of the International Youth Federation (IYF). 

Dr. Blocher's main research interests are in the interaction of political, social, and environmental factors in human mobility outcomes - migration, displacement and planned relocations - in the context of climate change. As part of her work, she is interested in social and political factors contributing to resource-based tensions and conflict dynamics. She has conducted studies on environment, climate change, and human mobility linkages in the Pacific small island states and in the East and Horn of Africa (Tanzania and Ethiopia). Her previous work has included field-based research for the International Organization for Migration (IOM)-led ‘Migration, Environment and Climate Change: Evidence for Policy’ (MECLEP) and for the FP7 Consortium ‘High-End cLimate Impact eXtremes’ (HELIX) projects.

She has recently lectured at MCI Innsbruck, Sciences Po Paris, Sorbonne Paris Cité (Paris XIII) and Addis Ababa University. She previously worked for the United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS), the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC-NRC) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). She holds  a Ph.D. in Political Science from Humboldt University in Berlin, a Master 2 from Sciences Po Paris, Bachelor's degree with distinctions from Johns Hopkins University. She speaks English, French, and Italian as well as some German and Swahili.

Selected Publications

Journals

• Blocher, Julia, Roman Hoffmann, and Helga Weisz (2024) The effects of environmental and non-environmental shocks on livelihoods and migration in Tanzania, Population & Environment 46(7).
• Blocher, Julia and Dalila Gharbaoui. 2018. “Long term solutions to disaster displacement - lessons from West Africa.” African Human Mobility Review 3 (3): 1020-1044.
• Gemenne, François and Blocher. Julia. 2017. “How can migration support adaptation? Challenges to Fleshing out a Policy Ideal.” The Geographical Journal 183(4): 336-347.   

• Gemenne, François, Julia Blocher, Florence de Longueville, Nathalie Perrin, Sara Vigil, Caroline Zickgraf, Dhalila Gharbaoui, Pierre Ozer. 2017. « Changement climatique, catastrophes naturelles et déplacements de populations en Afrique de l’Ouest » Revue Internationale de Géologie, de Géographie et d'Ecologie Tropicales 41(3) : 317-337.
• Blocher, Julia, Dalila Gharbaoui, and Sara Vigil. 2015. "West Africa: A Testing Ground for Regional Solutions.” Forced Migration Review (49): 18-21.
• Ozer, Pierre, Aline Thiry, Catherine Fallon, Julia Blocher, Florence de Longueville. 2014. “Containment in Sierra Leone: the inability of a state to confront Ebola?” The Lancet (384): 46-47.
• Blocher, Julia. 2010. “Biofuels and Land Use Changes: Flawed Carbon Accounting and Lost Carbon Sequestration Opportunity.” Johns Hopkins Undergraduate Research Journal (11): 19-23.

Book Chapters & Research Reports

• Blocher, J. et al. (2021). “Assessing the Evidence: Climate Change and Migration in the United Republic of Tanzania”. Geneva: Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and International Organization for Migration (IOM).
• Blocher, Julia. 2018. “Fleeing from arid lands: Pastoralism in the context of climate change”. In: McLeman, Robert and Francois Gemenne (eds.). Routledge Handbook of Environmental Displacement and Migration. New York: Routledge.
• Blocher, Julia and Andrea Milan. 2017. “Empirical research and methodology” In: Susanne Melde, Frank Laczko and François Gemenne (eds.) Making mobility work for adaptation to environmental changes: Results from the MECLEP global research. Geneva: IOM.
• Gharbaoui, Dalila and Julia Blocher. 2017. “Limits to adapting to climate change through relocations in Papua New Guinea and Fiji." In: Leal Filho, Walter and Johanna Nalau (Eds): Limits to Climate Change Adaptation. London: Springer Climate Change Management Series. 
• Blocher, Julia. 2017. “Lessons from the UNU Panel Series on Academic Thinking on Migration.” New York: UNU.
• Blocher, Julia. 2016. “Water always flows downhill: A case for Participatory Forest Management (PFM) and decentralization of forest governance in REDD+ implementation.” Coping with Environment Changes in Ethiopia and beyond. Ambrosetti, David (ed.) French Center for Ethiopian Studies (CFEE) and the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). 
• Blocher, Julia and Dalila Garbaoui. 2016. “The reason land matters: relocation as adaptation to climate change in Fiji Islands.” In: Warner, Koko, Andrea Milan and Benjamin Shraver (eds.) Migration, Risk Management and Climate Change: Evidence and Policy Responses. London: Springer.
• Blocher, Julia. 2015. “Climate Change and Environment Related Migration in the European Union Policy: An Organizational Shift towards Adaptation and Development.” In: Rosenow, Kerstin and François Gemenne (eds). Organizational Perspectives on Environmental Migration. Oxford: Routledge Series in Development, Mobilities and Migration.
• Gemenne, François, Julia Blocher, Florence de Longueville, Nathalie Perrin, Sara Vigil, Caroline Zickgraf, Pierre Ozer. 2015. "Scope of population movements in the Asia-Pacific region at climate extremes.” In: Price, Susanna and Jane Singer (eds.) Global Implications of Development, Disasters and Climate Change: Responses to Displacement from Asia Pacific. London: Taylor & Francis.

Opinions and Editorials

• Blocher, Julia and Manuel Orozco. “Points-Based Immigration Doesn’t Add Up.” The Hill. 19 August 2017.
• Blocher, Julia. “Global Compact on Migration Should Focus on Harnessing Its Win-Win Benefits.” Huffington Post, the Conversation. 12 May 2017.
• Blocher, Julia. “Challenging the picture of disaster-induced displacement: the evolving reality post-Typhoon Haiyan.” Opinion. IDMC. 27 May 2014, Web.
• Blocher, Julia. "Displaced by disasters: 32.4 million people uprooted in both rich and poor countriesy" Editorial. IDMC. 13 May 2013, Web.

Selected Lectures & Conferences

Presentations & Lectures

• “Measuring the migration-environment nexus: State of the Art.” Conference: International Forum on Migration Statistics (Paris, 15-16 January 2018).

• Keynote: “Separating Fact from Fiction: Migration and Displacement in the Age of Climate Change” Symposium: Planetary Health: A Good Life for All? (Innsbruck, 22-23 November 2017).

• Policy maker training: “Migration, Environment and Climate Change: Evidence for Policy” (Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, 26-28 October 2015)

•  “Migration and climate change in East Africa: the role of livelihood vulnerability.” Conference: Coping with Climate and Environment Changes in the Horn of Africa (HoA-REC&N – Addis Ababa, 7-9 April 2015).

• “Longitudinal evaluations of migration-related adaptation programs: planned relocation and resettlement” Conference: “Longitudinal Research on Environmental Change and Migration a Workshop on Objectives, Methods and Applicability to Policy and Practice” (World Bank– Washington, D.C. 19-20 March 2015).

Organization of Conferences

• “Combining quantitative and qualitative methods for a better understanding of the climate change-migration nexus” (Seville, 28-29 Sept, 2015). Presentation: “A mixed methods approach to environmental migration: Lessons from MECLEP”

• “High-End Climate Impacts and eXtremes (HELIX) Project Annual Meeting” (Liège, 14-17 Sept, 2015). Organizers: Center for Ethnic and Migration Studies (CEDEM) - University of Liège. Presentation: “Climate extremes, livelihoods security and potential mobility responses”